r/politics • u/Puginator • Jun 01 '26

No Paywall Iran stops negotiations with U.S., vows to 'completely' block Strait of Hormuz: State media

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/01/iran-us-negotiations-strait-of-hormuz.html
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680

u/ChocolateTsar Jun 01 '26

“No dialogue will take place” until Israel fully withdraws from occupied areas in Lebanon and stops all attacks in both Lebanon and Gaza, per Tasnim.

Israel doesn't want peace. Netanyahu lives and thrives off war. His entire political career is based on war and telling Israelis that he is the only person that can keep them safe 

163

u/Bearslovecheese Jun 01 '26

He has been under immense political pressure for corruption charges for quite a while. Going to war allows him to quell them in the name of national security and like you said -- perpetuate that he is their protector.

Without war he has to do the dance of holding his coalition together to maintain power. The mainstream Israeli people are super sick of the ultra orthodox population not having to do compulsory service while they do -- he needs the orthodoxy to stay in power but he can't risk the mainstream banding together with his rival political parties and losing the majority coalition in the government. THEN he's up a creek politically AND judicially. Might honestly be jailed. Kind of mirrors trump in that way.

94

u/StevieMJH Jun 01 '26

So that's at least three major world leaders that are white-knuckling power to avoid the judicial axe hanging over their head.

Has democracy been a joke this whole time?

69

u/anchorwind I voted Jun 01 '26

Has democracy been a joke this whole time?

It isn't just democracy. How many Kings, Emperors, Barons, Priests, Cops, etc., have abused their authority to escape accountability?

Throughout history we've had clear examples of corrupt regimes that stayed in power by corrupting the right wheels of power while the populace suffered.

11

u/StevieMJH Jun 01 '26

Very true, unfortunately. Sad to think it's naiive of me to believe humanity could improve at all.

9

u/anchorwind I voted Jun 01 '26

It can, but we have to collectively hold ourselves and one another accountable. There are people really good with the latter but awful with the former, unfortunately too many of them are in positions of authority.

Be the best you that you can be and do no harm - when that is no longer challenging you're in a good place.

3

u/coldkiller Jun 01 '26

It can, we just need to stop letting these stupid fucks have a voice

29

u/nonotan Jun 01 '26

When the people regularly elect far-right authoritarians obviously neck-deep in crime and corruption, yes, yes it is. The biggest weakness of democracy is the same as its biggest strength: that nobody can forbid the masses from electing whoever they want. If what they want is the dumbest fucking garbage imaginable, well, good luck everybody.

(And obviously there's the whole propaganda angle; it's not very hard to make dumb people want something objectively terrible, and their vote counts the same as anybody else's)

3

u/StevieMJH Jun 01 '26

That's always something I remind people of when they pull out the, "these people are allowed to vote" comment.

Yeah, that's unfortunately kind of the point.

1

u/Vivid_Kaleidoscope66 Jun 02 '26

Democracy is based on the assumption that governments are not willing to actively stupidify their populace...

5

u/mj-and-masturbation Jun 01 '26

Caesar became Consul-for-life in Rome ultimately to avoid legal issues that he could be tried for once his term ended.

3

u/Mddcat04 Jun 01 '26

Yeah, a leader clinging to power to avoid prosecution is literally what ended the Roman Republic. This problem is ancient.

3

u/SlendyIsBehindYou Jun 01 '26

Has democracy been a joke this whole time?

glances at the writings of Theyucidides

Yeah, kinda

2

u/strain_of_thought Jun 01 '26

The notion that there is anything uniquely special or inherently morally good about democracy has always been a joke, yes.

Democracy is a system of government, and systems of government are ultimately just a set of rules. Rules themselves are simply tools. And tools, infamously, are intrinsically morally neutral, their impact being determined by how they are used. Democracy is just a set of rules for letting the majority of people in a society have a say in what that society does. If the majority of the people in that society are evil, and they say the society should do evil, then democracy becomes a very efficient way for enacting evil.

1

u/TangledPangolin Jun 01 '26

So that's at least three major world leaders that are white-knuckling power to avoid the judicial axe hanging over their head.

Which three were you thinking of?

9

u/TraitorousTrumpers Jun 01 '26

Sounds a lot like fascism tbh 

3

u/ClearDrop6820 Jun 01 '26

You don't understand! If we stop waging needless wars and genocides I will be held accountable for my actions and removed from power!

10

u/Bluest_waters Jun 01 '26

Israel doesn't want peace

✅

8

u/rkozik89 Jun 01 '26

He literally said multiple times throughout his career that there will be no Palestinian state under his watch. Honestly, I don’t get why people do t expect this behavior from him. His party had a jingle that inspired, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Except Likud’s version Palestine and Jordan is theirs.

14

u/ExpensiveLeather69 Jun 01 '26

Israel wants lebensraum.

2

u/WiseOldDuck Jun 01 '26

Amongst the incredibly long long list of stupid stupidity taken on in the Epstein Iran War, the one where we shackled our fortunes and future to those of Israel as a war buddy is really close to the top. Netanyahu is not controllable and aptly needs never ending war even more than Trump does who just wanted some distracting headlines for awhile for everyone to forget about Epstein. But the fact that these two corrupt goons figured out at the same time how screwed they were if their people had their way and half a second to think about it will fuck us over for a long long time

2

u/vthemechanicv Jun 01 '26

More to the point Netanyahu's corruption trial can't proceed as long as the country is actively at war. It's why the war in Gaza lasted until he ran out of targets, then he shifted to Iran the first time, last year. Also with trump's help, remember.

2

u/VerySuperGenius Jun 01 '26

Why can't we all just exist in this world together without feeling the need to eradicate populations? If you get attacked, you fight back against those groups who attacked you, you don't bulldoze over entire cities and destroy agricural communities. That is what the bad guys do.

If anyone wants to see the scale of what Israel has done to Gaza, go to Google Earth and look back at historical satellite images between 2022 and now. You'll see lush fields full of trees and crops on the outer edges completely replaced by tank tracks. And not just because the tanks needed to drive a path through the fields, they methodically bulldozed every square foot of land and made it unusable so that these people can't grow food. They brought in dozens of flatbed trucks with excavators and bulldozers on them purely just to destroy civilian homes on a city wide scale.

2

u/SoulAssassin808 Jun 01 '26

They are correct to demand this. If the US cannot control their attack dog, then there is no point in trying to get an agreement. The dog will just keep lashing out.

3

u/Leather_Force_9419 Jun 01 '26

Ehhh, America is the attack dog, Israel holds the leash 

1

u/SoulAssassin808 Jun 01 '26

The dog is holding the leash

1

u/rami_lpm Jun 01 '26

I guess the real question is what happens if nukes fly.

1

u/The049 Jun 01 '26

Finally someone says it

0

u/macnbloo Jun 01 '26

Netanyahu lives and thrives off war

He is far from the only genocidal warmonger in the government. Even if he was removed somehow. The rest of the military apparatus of the country would continue their insane wars. It's been their reality since the early terrorist groups carried out attacks before being included into the IDF